


Falling Headlong

by kmary



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alcohol, Angst and Humor, Drunken Kissing, First Kiss, Haus Parties, Light Angst, M/M, Minor Chris "Chowder" Chow/Caitlin Farmer, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-06 09:15:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15883065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kmary/pseuds/kmary
Summary: It’s the first kegster of the year and Nursey is lost in a sea of freshmen, when he at last spots a familiar redhead moving across the floor.“Save me!” Nursey whines directly into Dex’s ear.Nursey feels Dex’s muscles move under his shirt. The action is innocent enough, but it reminds him that he hasn’t been close enough with anyone to feel their muscles move under his hands in a long while.Even in his drunken state Nursey finds that to be a weird thought to have about his roommate.





	Falling Headlong

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thanks to [VoxHumana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VoxHumana/pseuds/VoxHumana) for being an excellent beta-reader!

“...Shit.”

It’s the first kegster of the year and Nursey is lost in a sea of freshmen. While it was nice at first to hold court with these starry-eyed new students, sharing hockey stories and giving out the bullshitty wisdom of a college Junior, the novelty is starting to wear off.

There aren’t any exits in sight; the entrance to the kitchen is blocked by an over enthusiastic couple making out against the doorframe, and the back door is barred by the line to the bathroom. Everywhere he looks there are happy-drunk baby-faces dancing and having the time of their lives. Nursey is about to be accosted by another group of hopefuls, when he at last spots a familiar redhead moving across the floor.

He shoots out an arm and manages to hook a finger through Dex’s belt loop. Dex stumbles and in the confusion Nursey drops his drink and latches on to Dex’s arm instead.

“Save me!” Nursey whines directly into Dex’s ear. Dex jumps and makes a snorting sound, but does drag Nursey away and up the staircase.

Once they’re on the landing, Dex attempts to pry off Nursey’s hand. The alcohol flowing in Nursey’s blood makes his skin tingle at the contact. Dex is about to wiggle out of Nursey’s grip and cross the caution tape blocking the hallway, but Nursey yanks him back again.

“We can't go upstairs, the party's first floor only.”

Dex yanks his hand back with a laugh.

“Nurse, we're allowed to go upstairs. We live here now, remember?”

“…Hey, chill, I knew that,” Nursey says at last, hiding his embarrassment with a giggle. Shit, what was in the tub-juice anyway?

“Don't tell me you're so drunk we have to start up Nursey Patrol again,” Dex says, sounding more concerned as he takes a closer look at Nursey.

Nursey shoves him away and ducks under the tape. The music is only a little bit muted upstairs, but it’s nice to be away from the crowd. He turns as Dex joins him and ends up making a pirouette when Dex continues towards their room. Even though Nursey’s sure he stopped moving the room still spins around him and he again latches onto Dex to ground himself. Dex shifts at the added weight, but mostly ignores him as he fishes their room key out of his pocket and unlocks the door.

Nursey feels Dex’s muscles move under his shirt. The action is innocent enough, but it reminds Nursey that, aside from dancing and working out, he hasn’t been close enough with anyone to feel their muscles move under his hands in a long while. Even in his drunken state Nursey finds that to be a weird thought to have about his roommate and shoves it away.

.“Locked! Why is Chowder taking a shower in the middle of a kegster?” Dex’s annoyed voice cuts through Nursey’s hazy thoughts.

“Chow’s downstairs but I saw Farmer go up earlier.”

“Well, I saw Chowder go up a while ago.”

“So, why are they taking…” _‘a shower’_ goes unsaid as they both come to the same realization at the same time. Dex’s eyes double in size while Nursey’s grin grows wide enough to hurt his face. He takes a deep breath and starts hollering before Dex can stop him.

“GET IT, CHOWDER, MY MAAAAN!”

Dex goes beet red in the face and starts shoving Nursey out of the room, but they both hear the surprised yelps coming from the bathroom. Nursey makes a whooping sound that gets interrupted when Dex braces him against the doorframe. He is about to complain for getting his wind knocked out of him, but gets distracted by Dex’s closeness and the strength he feels were Dex’s hands hold him steady.

Nursey’s body thrills, but his mind is captured by the sudden glint in Dex’s eye. Dex twists his mouth into a smirk and he turns back towards the room.

“FARMER, I WANT THE DEETS LATER!”

Nursey laughs as an exasperated groan and giggles emerge through the closed bathroom door. Dex quickly pushes him outside and shuts the door behind them.

Nursey and Dex stare incredulously at each other and start to snicker once more.

“I knew you had it in you!” Nursey wheezes out between his breaths.

Dex is too busy catching his breath and finding his composure to answer.

“OK, enough of that,” he says after a while.

Dex takes the two steps over to the second upstairs bathroom and attempts to open the door. It’s locked. Nursey tries it too for the hell of it. Still locked. Through the door they can hear someone singing along to the song coming from downstairs, but the lyrics are slightly different:

_"Two minutes to take out the pie. Uh-huh- two minutes to take out the pie."_

“Bitty.” Dex and Nursey say in unison.

“Now what?” says Nursey.

“I’m not going downstairs, that bathroom’s disgusting.”

They stand there in the dim hallway, and Nursey watches as the multi colored disco lights from the party paint Dex in all the hues of the rainbow. He could probably go on watching that face for the rest of the evening, especially with that rare relaxed look Dex is wearing now, silently gazing back at him with a ghost of a blink-and-you-miss-it-smile on his lips, the one that makes Nursey's insides warm like the first cup of coffee on a winter morning. Then it hits him like lightning from a clear blue sky: he’s in love with William Poindexter.

The thought is staggering, but as Nursey’s mouth starts to pull into a smile he knows it to be true.  And it doesn’t make him mad. Surprised, maybe, but not mad. And it makes sense, doesn’t it? The true animosity they had in freshman year has morphed into playful teasing, and they both treat their different viewpoints as reality checks instead of criticism. They’re learning from each other, and therefore also growing closer to each other.

Dex has been one of Nursey’s closest, if also grumpiest, friends for a few months now, and it’s, again, surprising, but only natural that Nursey has developed deeper feelings for him.

As Nursey is busy with his introspection, the silence between them drags on. They’re standing so close to each other. Too close for comfort, really, eyes locked in a stare that seems to speak a million words at once. The ease in Dex's eyes is replaced with intensity.

Nursey’s heart pounds in his chest, his eyes getting ever so slightly glazed over, and his body starting to shake from within. With every change of the light a new word seems to spring up between them:

' _Amazing!_ ’ (yellow) ‘ _Gorgeous_ .’ (red) ‘ _What if?_ ’ (green) _‘Maybe?’_ (blue) _‘So close.’_ (yellow) _‘Yes.’_ (red) _Yes?’_ (green) ‘ _Yes!’_

A sense of vertigo before the plunge. All in one smooth movement Nursey steps closer, leans his head towards Dex’s face, and finally closes the distance, capturing Dex’s lips with his own in a soft, lingering kiss. In it, Nursey tries to pour all the newfound feelings coursing through his body, as well as his happiness at having Dex in his life, and the gratitude he feels for all Dex does for him: making their room nice, having his back on the ice and rescuing him from overzealous freshmen. The kiss and the moment are ones of pure perfection.

They break apart in heavy, unsteady breaths, leaning forehead to forehead. Dex’s hands come up and hold on to Nursey’s arms, the warmth of Dex’s palms seeping through Nursey’s shirt, although maybe it’s simply the adrenaline shooting through his veins that’s making his nerve endings explode from the touch.

Reality for Nursey once more starts spinning into a storm, a tornado swooping him out over unknown waters. He again leans forward into the heaven that was the touch of Dex’s lips against his.

And misses.

Dex has moved back. Nursey loses his balance and stumbles forward. He brings his arms up to catch his fall, grappling for purchase, and crumbles onto Dex.

Dex tightens his grip on Nursey’s arms and it takes a fumbling moment for the two of them to regain their balance. Their bodies are now flush against each other, from knees to thighs to torsos, arms entwined and heads pressed together in awkward angles.

Time stands still. Nursey’s mind has come to a complete halt, a static noise sounding in his ears.

“I -”

“What -”

“What?”

Somewhere a brain cell puts it’s attention to sorting out Nursey’s feet and he finally finds his footing. He pushes himself off the frozen form of his roommate and fumbles for words.

“I -, it’s.. No?” His brain cells manage to produce.

“No.” Dex replies quickly.

“Oh.”

At exactly that moment Bitty decides to exit the bathroom.

“Hey, y'all, bathroom’s free!”

Moving carefully, feeling the effects of the alcohol, the adrenaline, and a new feeling of quickly growing cold anxiety in the pit of his stomach, Nursey steps away from Dex and smooths down his shirt. Suddenly movement has found its way to Nursey’s stomach, and he desperately needs to throw up.

Nursey hurdles himself past Bitty into the bathroom, getting to the toilet just in time. He registers Bitty’s worried exclamation, as well as the ding of Bitty’s phone and the retreating cry of _"My pie!"_ that follows.

As if Nursey’s humiliation wasn't great enough at this point, Dex has decided to follow him into the bathroom and is now hovering in the doorway, witnessing all the contents of Nursey's stomach leave his body.

Nursey takes a few calming breaths while the toilet flushes. He rips off a few pieces of toilet paper and blows his nose, and flushes that down too, before he sits back on the floor and tries not to think of what comes next. _No._

The presence of Dex in the doorway is making his stomach churn with anxiety, a stark contrast to the warm, comfortable feeling he's become familiar with. _No._ Nursey closes his eyes and deepens his breathing to try to center himself and make the room stop wobbling. _No._

Dex clears his throat, and Nursey opens his eyes and squints at the ceiling. He can't look at Dex, and the look of heartbroken pity that's bound to be all over his face.

When Nursey says nothing, Dex clears his throat again.

"Are you ok?" Dex says with a careful tone of voice, as if Nursey may break if he were to talk too loudly.

"'m fine" Nursey lies, eyes still fixed to the ceiling. _No._

Nursey can only imagine too clearly what will follow: _'I didn't know, I'm sorry, I'm not gay'._ No news there. _No._ Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"I need to use the toilet."

Nursey's eyes snap to Dex.

"Huh?"

No look of pity in his eyes. No frown of, of, commiseration on his mouth. Just a faint blush and-

"The toilet. Need it."

Oh.

"Oh!"

Nursey stumbles to his feet and he and Dex do an awkward dance stepping around each other before Nursey reaches the hallway and promptly gets the bathroom door slammed in his face. He stands in the dimness, head spinning, suddenly lost as to what to do.

Bitty bounds up the stairs with a glass of water in one hand and banana in the other, both of which he thrusts into Nursey's hands. Nursey is then dragged into his and Dex’s room and sat down on a chair with an order to drink slowly.

Bitty makes short work of swapping the sheets on their bunk beds and finishes by placing a bucket by the headend of the lower bunk.

“What are you doing?” Nursey asks around a bite of banana, even though he can already guess the answer.

“Trust me, you don't want to sleep on the top bunk if you're going to throw up again. Though how you managed to win that bet is beyond me.” Bitty glances back at him after eyeing his handiwork. “How are you doing with that water?”

“Fine, mom.” Nursey rolls his eyes, and it doesn’t earn him any brownie points by the change in Bitty’s face.

“I'm being nice to you now because you're feeling sick, but don't expect to get away with that attitude in the future.”

Nursey teeters between chagrin and insubordination, but settles on the former.

“Yes, captain,” he mutters.

“That's better. Now. Why's the bathroom door locked?”

“C-squared are in there having shower sex.”

Bitty gives Nursey a blank look then walks out of the room muttering about how Shitty would be proud. In the doorway, he passes Dex who is looking in at Nursey. Nursey waves at him with his banana, unsure of the proper protocol post kissing-your-roommate-then-immediately-puking-your-guts-out.

“Dex, you're on the top bunk tonight,” Bitty orders Dex before heading downstairs. Dex hesitates at the door but follows Bitty to the party.

“Bits, wait up.” Nursey can hear Dex call out, and then he’s all alone again.

Nursey finishes his water and the banana, following it with a tic-tac from his bag. He then settles into bed, and after an hour of pillow-thumping, nauseous groaning, and reliving the embarrassing kiss, he finally manages to fall asleep.

 

_/\\_

 

Nursey wakes up disoriented, with a pounding head and a terrible taste in his mouth. It takes a moment to recognise his room as seen from the unfamiliar view of the bottom bunk of the bed, but as he starts to get his bearings, the events of the previous night that led to him sleeping here in the first place come rushing back. He muffles a groan into his pillow and considers never leaving his bed. His bladder makes the decision for him.

He gets up, feeling less nauseous than he'd anticipated, and stumbles into the bathroom. Dex is sound asleep in Nursey’s bed, snoring every so often, but otherwise the Haus is quiet.

Nursey sneaks downstairs and settles on the horrid green couch to nibble on a piece of toast and wallow in self pity until someone else comes downstairs. Unsurprisingly it's Bitty, talking quietly on the phone with Jack, who gets up disgustingly early every day, regardless of weekends or late nights. Nursey joins Bitty in the kitchen and they prepare Haus breakfast together.

One by one more people begin to trickle downstairs. Last of all is Dex who slips into the last available chair, which happens to be as far from Nursey as possible. The downside to this is, of course, that Nursey now has a full view of Dex and his well put together appearance. Dex has obviously showered; his face is rosy and his hair is still damp in places. His t-shirt stretches out at the shoulders and his wristwatch brings attention to his bare arms in a very pleasing way. All Nursey had mustered himself to do was to pull on a Samwell hoodie over his pyjamas.

It occurs to Nursey that he probably shouldn't be checking Dex out, and wonders when the hell that had become a habit to the point he has to tell himself to stop. To rectify the situation he turns his attention to his other Haus-mates. At least then he can justify his ogling as for purely aesthetic reasons.

Bitty looks… nice. But he always does. Chowder and Farms are being cutesy, feeding each other breakfast, and Nursey doesn't have much patience to watch that. Ollie and Wicks are... Ollie and Wicks. Even after two years on the same team, after living under the same roof, and even knowing they share a bed in the attic, Nursey isn’t sure if they’re together or not. At this point he’s too embarrassed to ask.

And then back to Dex, who’s discussing something with Ollie, and Nursey’s stomach gets filled with butterflies.

“- and I can go to the salvage yard first, but I still need to go to the store for putty. And I’d appreciate if someone cleaned up in there before I get started.”

“I’ll do it!” Nursey hears himself say, even though he doesn’t know what he just volunteered to.

“Great!” Bitty is quick to reply. “Nursey’s on bathroom duty.”

The rest of the table is equally quick to agree, and if Nursey had been less distracted he would have been more suspicious.

“Yeah,” he says, “Since I, uh, missed clean-up last night...”

The last part is muttered towards the table, to prevent himself from accidentally catching Dex’s eye. He really should apologize to Dex about last night once they get a moment alone.

That moment doesn't come after breakfast as Dex grabs the keys to Ollie's car and drives off. Nursey helps Bitty clear the table but is shooed away once the dishes are dry and Bitty sets up his video camera on the kitchen table.

Nursey locates the the industrial strength cleaning supplies and heads to the downstairs bathroom. As he opens the door he finally understands why no-one else volunteered to clean in there.

The mud all over the floor he can understand. That it's spread half up the walls he can't. A bunch of cigarette butts are dropped in the corner, and someone's drawn a new dick on the wall. But the thing that makes Nursey consider banning all future kegsters is the fact that the sink is broken clean in two, one half still secured to the wall, and the other stacked on top of the toilet.

“Hey, Bitty?” he calls out, not turning his eyes from the mess in the bathroom.

“I'm recording!” comes the reply.

Nursey sighs deeply and gets to work. After a while he gets into the zone and is just about finished when Dex returns with a replacement sink and his toolbox. Nursey tries to slink away but Dex ropes him into assisting with the installation.

It doesn't seem to involve more than sitting on the lid of the toilet and either holding this or handing Dex that or occasionally keeping a flashlight steady. As Nursey watches Dex work, he marvels at the ease with which he handles his tools, and the confidence he has with the repair work. Not just the sink, but the dryer in the basement, and the times he tried fixing Bitty’s old oven.

“How do you know how to do this stuff?” Nursey didn't mean to say that out loud, but Dex doesn't seem to mind the question.

“It's not very hard if you just look at it and think about what you're doing.” Dex points out where the previous sink was attached to the pipes. “It isn't any more difficult than putting together a puzzle. One where you sometimes have to get the pieces from different places and make them fit.”

“A scavenger hunt puzzle.”

“Sure.” Dex has that relaxed almost-smile again. “And if I'm in doubt I ask someone who knows. Dad, or someone at the hardware store. Google and Youtube are pretty helpful too. The internet is for a lot more than porn, you know.”

Nursey snorts.

“You're a total hack. I can't believe you trust Youtube when it comes to plumbing.”

Dex’s smile turns into a smirk.

“Not just plumbing, either.”

“Yeah? What else then?”

That seem to have been the wrong thing to say, or Dex needs to focus on his work, because the smile disappears. Nursey focuses on angling the flashlight at the right spot. He nearly drops it when Dex speaks again.

“So about last night.”

Nursey inhales sharply.

“I am so sorry, I shouldn't have-" He remembers to lower his voice, “-kissed you, I mean, I'm usually better at controlling myself, you know? But I was drunk, and that's not really an excuse, and you were right to stop me, but I'll never do it again cause you're my best friend and I hope we can just forget it ever happened and again I am so. So. Sorry.”

Dex stares at him with his mouth open.

“I-"

“I hope you can forgive me?”

“If I can get a word in edgewise, then, yeah!”

Nurse has to press his lips together to stop himself from talking, tension gathering in his stomach, and Dex watches him while chewing on his lower lip.

“Nursey, I-”

“Hey, y'all, how's it looking?”

They both jump as Bitty appears in the doorway.

“Jesus! Yes! We're done.”

“Great! I'll get started on lunch.”

Bitty disappears and Dex turns back to Nursey with a frown on his face.

“You're my best friend, too.” Dex says at last.

“Oh. Chill.”

Dex looks to the floor and gathers his tools into his toolbox.

“Yeah, ‘chill’. Hey, turn the water back on, would you? And run the tap for a while. If it leaks somewhere I'll look at it after lunch.”

Nursey looks around.

“How do I do that?”

Dex is already in the hallway carrying the broken sink, but gives Nursey a wink.

“Figure it out.”

Nursey does figure it out after a bit of googling. He credits the smile he carries for the rest of the day and the feeling of accomplishment entirely to Dex.

His good mood continues only until the next morning, when Dex seems to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed. He’s being even more tired and grouchy than usual, and when Nursey asks him about it, he gets brushed off with _‘Not now’_ and ‘ _I don't want to talk about it’_.

It hurts, obviously, since Nursey was sure they were at a point they could talk to each other about anything. If Dex was still upset about the kiss, Nursey is sure he'd say something about it. The irony that Nursey himself will never mention his crush to Dex is not lost to him, but that's different, really.

They part ways and go to their different classes, and when they meet up for lunch Dex seems not _fine_ exactly, but better. That's until Nursey gets accosted by some freshmen from the kegster. Once they leave, Dex is staring down at his plate and moving his food around with his fork, frown back on his face.

“What?” Nursey asks, perhaps sounding more blunt than he intended.

“It’s nothing.” Dex glances at him, but looks away just as quickly, the corners of his mouth tugging downwards. “I’ll get over it.”

Before Nursey has time to say anything in response, Dex gathers his things and leaves, claiming he needs to do some homework before his next class. Nursey feels uneasy about how things are left and decides to try and talk to Dex again at practice if he still seems upset.

 

_/\\_

 

Practise is a mess. Dex isn't connecting with Nursey, the rest of the team, the puck, or even the ice. First of all he keeps his head down in the changing room, barely speaking to anyone, and it really brings down the team morale. Then he slips and nearly falls over when stepping on to the rink. He keeps it together during warm-up, but then keeps missing passes and is finally told by Coach Murray to just take laps around the rink to find his focus, and more importantly, to keep out of the way of the other players, lest he cause an accident.

Nursey tries to focus on his own practice, but can only stand to watch Dex circle around them for a few minutes before he has to join him.

“Go away,” Dex growls at him but doesn’t pick up his pace to get away. Nursey takes that as half an invitation to stay. They make it halfway through another lap before Dex speaks again.

“I’m not angry at you! You were drunk and you did something stupid and you said you were sorry! I’m angry at _myself_ for wishing…”

They make another half lap before Nursey decides to push.

“You wish?”

A whole lap this time.

“I wish I hadn't stopped you,” Dex mutters at last.

Nursey grabs Dex and makes them halt in front of the boards.

“What?”

“And I’m sorry, but apparently I'm a creep who wishes he'd taken advantage of his best friend who was too drunk to know what he's doing.” Dex’s face gets more red for every word and he casts down his eyes in shame. “That's why I'm angry.”

Nursey’s head seems to be filled with molasses, because he can’t seem to make sense of what Dex is saying.

“I’m gonna need you to spell this out for me. You said ‘no’ because you didn’t want me to kiss you.”

“Noo.” Dex enounciates every word clearly. “I said ‘no’, because _you_ didn’t want to kiss _me_.”

Nursey stares at Dex in disbelief. Dex takes a deep breath, carefully exhaling through his nose before looking Nursey earnestly in the eyes.

“Nursey, I li-”

“Hey y’a-”

“BITTY WOULD YOU LEAVE US ALONE FOR ONE GODDAMN MINUTE!”

Bitty gasps with his eyes opened wide with shock. He then throws up his hands in a ‘ _Well excuuuuuse meeee’_ gesture, turns on his skates and returns to the rest of the team. Nursey’s eyes flicker between Bitty’s retreating form and a frankly wild-looking Dex.

“You just yelled at Bitty-”

“I LIKE YOU! LIKE A LOT!” Dex looks near hysterical from his outburst and Nursey is too dumbfounded by Dex’s words to do anything but smile.

Someone in the team wolf whistles and Chowder cheers loudly, but Bitty’s voice sounds clear above any other reactions from the team, ordering another set of suicides.

Nursey grabs Dex by the neck to smash their helmets together, wanting to kiss him and cursing their gear for being in the way. Their embrace turns into a happy wrestling match with pushing and shoving; a truly masculine display of redirecting tension.

They gain some distance with a final push from Dex, and Nursey leans on his stick while Dex gathers himself to refocus on their drills. They pass a puck between them before a thought occurs to Nursey.

“You realise I will have to freeze you out until you apologize to Bitty. I like you too, but not enough to sacrifice pie-privilege.”

Dex fumbles the shot to Nursey and the puck glides off towards the boards. They pause and watch the black disc slow to a halt, but jerk awake by Coach Murray’s whistle signalling the end of practice. They follow their teammates towards the exit, but not before Dex hisses out a curse of realisation.

“...Shit.”

**Author's Note:**

> psa: don't trust youtube to teach you about plumbing.


End file.
